When the King of Israel came

Verse 1
When the King of Israel came
His joyful guests to view,
Looking with his eyes of flame,
He look’d the sinner thro’;
One observ’d with angry frown,
(One the type of millions more)
Bold with Jesus to sit down,
And only seem t’ adore.

Verse 2
Unadorn’d and unarray’d
With Jesus’ righteousness,
In his filthy garments clad,
And destitute of grace,
Naked in his Maker’s sight,
Without the covering from above,
Dress of saints, the linnen white,
The robe of faith and love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “‘And when the King came in to see his guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment.’—[Matt. 22,] v. 11.” This hymn appears in the 1766 manuscript “MS Matthew.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/577, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 3). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 10 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 351.
Publishing: Public Domain